Final Fantasy Logic : Levels

Well I decided to start a thing called "Final Fantasy Logic" where we have to question the boundary between gameplay and story along with some of the logic of Final Fantasy.
These things mostly state, if this WASN'T a video game how would it work.
Other people can make these as well.
Today we are talking about levels. What are they?
Well for gameplay purposes it's a way to get higher stats and to kill things easier.
But if Cloud just spent 5 hours beating up the same spider things over and over would he get stronger at all? Will he able to use magic more often.
Final Fantasy 2 kinda makes sense in this case. Use Magic your magic goes up, get hit your HP goes up (Though most people didn't like the system for leveling)
In some cases Leveling up does mean how strong someone is. See Final Fantasy VII During the flashback scene Cloud is Level 1 and he can't do a damn thing and Sephiroth is high level and he kills everything. But are the characters really getting stronger as they "Level"?
Let me put it this way.
In most games the monsters get stronger the further you get into the game. Yes this makes sense, but for a second lets say some other person wanted to go to....Lets use Final Fantasy V as an example. Someone Living in the 2nd world wanted to go around. But the monsters there are stronger then the first world. So if he is weak would he stand a chance or would he have to find some planet traveling meteor so he could beat up weaker monsters so he can cross the street without dying.

Another Exception to this would be Final Fantasy VIII where the monsters level up with you mostly stating that your characters aren't getting stronger at all.

And that is all I got right now.

I think 2 is the most reasonable and most real form of gaining strength, but I wouldn't count out the level system.
I mean, sure, it works by just getting a boost of strength ever couple of fights, but in most games it does seem to flow well.

VIII however I have contradictions with. I have mixed feelings about their system
I mean, the enemies and everything level up with you, so they'll always be on par with you.
It's good because enemies won't be too overpowering to you, but at the same time, if you're having trouble with a certain boss, training doesn't really help because as you level, so will said boss.
It really relies on the junction system.

I didn't like XIII's though. The crystarium was a good idea, but it was just you using points and adding into things, rather than just freely growing over time.